Update 3rd July 2020
3rd July 2020
Dear Parents and Carers
We have heard the news yesterday and received the guidance from the Department for Education that we will be able to reopen to all children at both schools from September. Whilst we have already started making plans for this to happen we will continue to do so in line with the new guidance and we look forward to this new start for everyone in September. Although I am sure there will be many worries and lots of new rules for all of the children across the two schools to get used to. I am confident that they will be able to adapt quickly like the children who have been able to return to school over the last few weeks.
We have now managed to accommodate all children who have been on our waiting list at the Primary School and there are only a few children left to accommodate on the Nursery School waiting list. We will not be adding any more children to the waiting lists for the last two weeks of term to allow those children who have returned to both schools to settle into their routine. Both schools will close to children on Friday 17th July 2020 and we will reopen to the children on Wednesday 2nd September 2020.
Reports and next year’s class.
We are currently preparing to send out reports for this academic year by email and some by post for Primary School children and prepare for the collection of learning journals from the Nursery School as well as reports for F1 children. If your email address or postal address has changed please get in touch with the school office or email your year group teacher so that we have your most up to date details to ensure the report and letter is not sent to an old email address. We will also be informing you of your child’s next class teacher. Sadly, we have not been able to have the opportunity to prepare the children for their next year’s class and year group routine as we normally would but rest assured that we will do our best to settle the children and reduce any anxieties in September.
Childcare provision.
We have managed to accommodate all those children who have requested a place for the week of 6th July 2020. The very large majority of parents completed the survey form prior to the 7pm Thursday deadline and I thank you for helping with this request. The next and final survey will be sent out as it has been for the last 15 weeks on Wednesday. Please continue to complete it as soon as possible to secure a place for your child and at the very latest by Thursday 7pm. There will be no childcare provision at either school over the Summer Holidays.
Drop off time: Please also remember to drop your child off between 8.45 and 9.00am.
Pick up time: Please remember to collect your child before 3.20pm unless you are a key worker and paying for the after school service from OTIS.
Working from home.
Online learning continues to be available on the working from home page on our school website. Or utilise the extremely well resourced Oak National Academy website https://www.thenational.academy/ . Don’t forget that you can contact your child’s year group teachers by email, for example: year1@somerville.wirral.sch.uk Foundation 2 is F2year@somerville.wirral.sch.uk this is the only one that differs slightly in format.
Governors.
Congratulations and welcome to the Governing Body of Somerville Federation to our two new parent governors; Victoria Lindon and Gary Armstrong. They will be joining us at our first full governing body meeting of the new academic year in November 2020. Please remember that their remit is to represent the parent body on the governors, to support and approve the decision making of the governing body and not to bring issues or concerns raised by parents.
Free School Meal Vouchers.
Mrs Zazzi and Mrs Wright are currently preparing the Summer holiday free school meal £90 voucher to be sent out to all parents. Just to remind you that the £90 per child voucher will be sent out by the week ending the 10th July. Please do not contact the school office until the 13th July if you have had any issues receiving codes for your vouchers. We have been informed by the DFE this week that these vouchers should have a 4 week expiry date. Therefore if you do not receive them or do not claim them straight away you need to do this within 4 weeks. After the Summer holidays we will be unable to reissue codes or chase parents up who have not claimed codes like we have up until now as the office work will return to full capacity.
We have already started to cancel and reissue the £3,480 of unclaimed vouchers for our parents at Somerville who had not yet cashed their code, we will continue to do this next week. We don’t want anyone to miss out on what is your money for your child.
Free School Meal Vouchers for the week of 6th July have already been sent and received by parents earlier this week on Monday or Tuesday.
Residential visit for current Year 5 children as they move onto Year 6.
In light of the recent guidance released yesterday by the DFE in relation to residential visits planned for the Autumn term I have been in touch with PGL Boreatton Park and moved the visit date from November 2020 to March 2021. The new proposed date will be 10th March 2021 until 12th March 2021. We will then have a clearer idea if the trip will be able to go ahead. The same terms that I have previously set out will apply to parents payments to protect you. If the visit is cancelled because of COVID-19 by the school or by PGL we will reimburse your payments in full.
Contacting the school.
Office staff continue to work in the school office to answer the telephone and respond to or forward emails. Please do not visit the school office unless you have a prior appointment. Only in exceptional circumstances should you visit the school office and with a prior appointment. Emails can be sent to the schooloffice@somerville.wirral.sch.uk and the school office number is 0151 638 5074
Please continue to follow the guidance in your own families over the coming weeks to ensure that the virus continues to fall in our local community and to prevent any local lockdown.
Look after yourselves everyone!
Mr M J Forber
Executive Headteacher